A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzibar... Now what is between? For the world wide classical era philatelist and stamp collector, a country specific philatelic survey is offered by the blog author, Jim Jackson, with two albums: Big Blue, aka Scott International Part 1 (checklists available), and Deep Blue, aka William Steiner's Stamp Album Web PDF pages. In addition, "Bud" offers commentary and a look at his completely filled Big Blue. Interested? So into the Blues...

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Latakia - Bud's Big Blue

Roman “Arch
of Triumph” at Latakia, ca 183 CE

on Syria,
regular issue, 1961

Bud's Big BlueBud's Observations

If Big
Blue’s Latakia stamps seem familiar, there’s good reason. They’re Syrian stamps
overprinted in French and Arabic, like the stamps of the Alaouites which
preceded them, for postal service in the ancient city of Latakia (Laodicea ad
Mare, الْلَاذِقِيَّة‎ al-Lādhiqīyah), now part of Syria.

The French
overprint continues the saga of post-World War I reconstruction, a recurring
theme in Big Blue and in my comments about its stamps.

The Ottoman
Empire, of which Latakia was a miniscule part, had a long and glorious history.
Reaching a peak around 1500 CE, it stretched from what is now Bulgaria, through
Greece and Israel and Syria, and extended into much of Saudi Arabia and along the
north coast of Africa. But, at least for 200 years before WWI, it had been
declining both in influence and territory. The Ottomans were accommodating to
modernity poorly. Then they sided with the Central European powers during WWI
and, tragically, exterminated 1.5 million of their own citizens, the Armenians.
When the war ended, the victors deemed the Ottoman Empire ripe for dissolution,
which occurred formally in 1922.

The League
of Nations assigned (mandated) France to establish order in the Syrian part of
the Empire, including Latakia, an area populated mostly by Alawites (Alaouites).

The Alawites and the French got along badly with each other, the former being
highly factional and implacably separatist. As a concession in 1930, the French
renamed the area Latakia. The Alaouites stamps, as a result, stopped and the
Latakia stamps started, although they were in use only until 1936 when Latakia became
part of Syria. The annexation displeased the Alawites but, weak and
disorganized, they mounted little resistance.

So, for some
collectors the stamps of Latakia become monuments to a lost cause while, for
others, only scraps in the dustbin of WWI’s aftermath (aka Big Blue).

Census: 25
in BB spaces.

Jim's Observations

The French mandate era in the Middle East following WW II resulted in some interesting overprinted issues. And obscure and short lived states- such as Latakia. Fascinating.